Just asking.

What your right wingnut controlled Missouri General Assembly spends it’s time on:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

House Resolution No. 99 [pdf]

98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE MOON.

1451L.01I

WHEREAS, in 2010, the United States Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare”; and

WHEREAS, the act was passed under questionable circumstances in which the United States Senate completely revised the language in H.R. 3590, a bill regarding housing tax breaks for service members, and used it as the vehicle for the ACA in order to skirt the technical requirements that a tax bill originate in the House; and

WHEREAS, four of the United States Supreme Court justices found the ACA to be an unconstitutional expansion of federal power in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius; and

WHEREAS, to even consider National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the United States Supreme Court had to declare that the ACA wasn’t a tax bill, but the five justices who found it to be constitutional justified their opinion based on the taxing powers of the federal government; and

WHEREAS, the ACA affects as much as 1/6 of the economy and the ability of citizens to participate in a free and open health care market and has caused numerous health insurance companies to leave the market, resulting in a consolidation of health insurance services in fewer providers; and

WHEREAS, the implementation of the ACA has been fraught with problems; and

WHEREAS, as of the Spring of 2014, the number of uninsured Americans had decreased less than 5%; and

WHEREAS, Missouri voters have twice overwhelmingly rejected Obamacare through ballot initiatives, including Proposition C in 2010, which prohibits mandating the purchase of 30 health care related products and services, and through the passage of Proposition E in 2012, which prohibits the Governor and state agencies from implementing a health insurance exchange independent of the General Assembly; and

WHEREAS, voters in Missouri and across the United States have repeatedly elected officials from both the Republican and Democrat parties based on their promise to fight the Affordable Care Act, and there now are clearly enough members of the United States House and Senate to pass a bill repealing it; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri House of Representatives agrees with the four United States Supreme Court justices about the unconstitutionality of the ACA, and finds that act to be most injurious of the basic freedoms Missouri citizens deserve; and

WHEREAS, the People, in Article I, Section 2 of the Missouri Constitution, have declared that the “principal office of government” is to “give security” to their core liberties and that when a legislature fails to secure the People’s liberty “it fails in its chief design”; and

WHEREAS, each and every Representative has taken an oath to support the Constitutions of the United States and Missouri, and thereby has a personal responsibility to defend the People’s liberty:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we, the members of the Missouri House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth General Assembly, hereby insist that each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation endeavor with “manly firmness” and resolve to totally and completely repeal the Affordable Care Act, settling for no less than a full repeal; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, and each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation.

[emphasi in original]

“….WHEREAS, the Missouri House of Representatives agrees with the four United States Supreme Court justices about the unconstitutionality of the ACA, and finds that act to be most injurious of the basic freedoms Missouri citizens deserve….”

That and $1.50 will get you downtown on the bus. If your town has a bus.

And then there’s this call to action:

“….the members of the Missouri House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth General Assembly, hereby insist that each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation endeavor with “manly firmness” and resolve to totally and completely repeal the Affordable Care Act….”

We’re quite certain Representatives Hartzler (r) and Wagner (r) appreciate the sentiment behind the unfortunate use of language.

Yes, we know Senator Claire McCaskill (D) is also part of the Missouri congressional delegation, we just didn’t have enough room for her title and name on the headline.